On November 15, 2020, during the fourth leaders' meeting of RCEP, under the witness of Premier Li Keqiang and other leaders of 15 member states, ten ASEAN countries, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand formally signed the regional comprehensive economic partnership agreement (RCEP). This marks the official launch of the free trade zone with the largest population, the largest economic and trade scale and the most development potential in the world.
The RCEP agreement covers a market with 2.2 billion people (nearly 30% of the world's total), a GDP of US $26.2 trillion (about 30% of the world's total), and a total export of US $5.2 trillion, accounting for nearly 28% of Global trade (based on 2019 data). This will strongly support free trade and multilateral trade system, stabilize regional industrial chain and supply chain, and boost regional and world economic recovery and development. Under the promotion of RCEP agreement, the development of China's wool textile industry and trade facilitation will be promoted and have a positive impact.
The wool textile industry chain in RCEP is complete
Close trade relations
RCEP covers the whole industrial chain from wool production to product consumption. Australia and New Zealand are the main producing areas of wool. China and ASEAN are the main wool processing and manufacturing industries. China, Japan and South Korea are all important wool products consumer markets.
China is the largest wool export market of Australia and New Zealand, ASEAN and Japan are the second and fourth export markets of China's wool products respectively, and ASEAN is the second largest import market of Japan.
In 2020, the total trade volume of wool textile raw materials and products (excluding carpets) between China and other RCEP member countries is US $3.59 billion, accounting for 33% of the total trade volume. Among them, the export volume was US $2.08 billion, accounting for 28% of the total export volume; the import volume was US $1.51 billion, accounting for 44% of the total import volume. The orderly and convenient development of RCEP regional trade is particularly important for the wool textile industry.
